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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
The narrator's voice is wonderful, bringing the reader along on her antics with her friends, and as an observer to horrendous events and violence in a Zimbabwe in the midst of upheaval. Chapters are written episodically, in some ways conveying to the reader the accumulation of the unanswered questions of the child narrator. The arrival of the NGO team is a scene I won't soon forget, as the children are both frenzied and ashamed. And there are so many others.
I was torn on this book. There were parts I loved, sections that were so painful and evoked such a strong response from me. The narrative begins in Zimbabwe with Darling struggling to have a childhood with her friends (including a pregnant 12 year old, I think) but eventually moved to the U.S. when Darling becomes part of the modern diaspora. Either part of the novel could have been its own story. I struggled a bit with the transition, and with feeling the connection between the young Darling and the Darling in America. Ultimately, I felt that there was too much crammed into one book for it to be a single cohesive narrative.
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
enjoyed reading esp the first 1/3 set in Zim. felt it ended a bit abruptly; think ending books seem harder to start! overall enjoyed and felt like lots of the themes explored were well done and really enjoyed picturing the descriptions, particularly of life in zim
This is a really well-written but frequently depressing book. It seems to fall somewhere between fiction and memoir, and deserves all the acclaim it's received. Almost a series of short stories, I was sometimes confused about the passage of time between chapters, but the main character's development and the storytelling style never stopped being engaging.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
‘And when we got America we took our dreams, looked at them tenderly as if they were newly born children, and put them away; we would not be pursuing them’
My favourite line from a great book. Beautifully captures a coming of age story with all the hope of a new life and the harsh reality for many who seek it.
My favourite line from a great book. Beautifully captures a coming of age story with all the hope of a new life and the harsh reality for many who seek it.
Provocative and thought-provoking, not one of these books that one reads and easily leaves behind and forgets. Still not sure about the African first half, but the American is terrific. In my private 2013 Booker challenge WNNN tops in the moment.
Powerful story, with a disorienting style of dialog that made it a challenge to keep up a reading flow; had to stop and back up often when I realized someone was speaking, rather than the narrator describing something. The main character, Darling, was a marvelous voice to carry the story.
One of the best books I've read recently. And I don't usually say that about new books - I generally prefer those books that have stayed in print for 20 years plus and thus stood the test of time.
Bulawayo narrates using Darling, a child's voice, which I found really powerful. Bulawayo, using Darling's voice, is able to recount a scene in breathtaking naivety, with the child's voice allowing what could be extremely painful scenes to be described with a tenderness that makes them bearable. As a child, Darling bluntly describes things as they are, allowing me to appreciate the narrative on two levels - what Darling described, and the humour and playfulness the children are able to find in it, and the gap it left for me to fill between how things were and how they could or should have been. For example, on one level, stealing guavas is a great game, on another level its a very sad example of starving children scavenging for food.
Bulawayo also forces me to reflect on my opinions of contemporary events, by presenting things I have seen or read about on the news and formed passing opinions of from a very different perspective. Likewise, it encourages me to pay a little more attention to people I see every day, like the Ghanaian and South American cleaning and catering staff that work in my office. The loss of names is a metaphor for the whole loss of identity as one's way of live is destroyed or forced to change. There is only one section in the book where the inhabitants of Paradise have 'real' names, and the destruction of their lives at that time, is, I think reflected in the change in their names.
There are echoes of "The Grapes of Wrath", with Bulawayo using a similar narrative construct, with chapters written from a more distant perspective, giving a view across time and whole groups of people. These are particularly prominent in the second part of the book, after Darling moves to America, with the emigration of people from Zimbabwe echoing the migration West during America's Great Depression.
I enjoyed the first section of the book, when Darling was in Zimbabwe more than the second part after she had reached America. I thought the narrative flowed better in the first part, the second was perhaps a little more disconnected.
Overall though, honestly one of the best books I've read in a while, and I hope it does really well.
[And I must have liked it, because I've just had to write this review twice, the last one didn't save]
Bulawayo narrates using Darling, a child's voice, which I found really powerful. Bulawayo, using Darling's voice, is able to recount a scene in breathtaking naivety, with the child's voice allowing what could be extremely painful scenes to be described with a tenderness that makes them bearable. As a child, Darling bluntly describes things as they are, allowing me to appreciate the narrative on two levels - what Darling described, and the humour and playfulness the children are able to find in it, and the gap it left for me to fill between how things were and how they could or should have been. For example, on one level, stealing guavas is a great game, on another level its a very sad example of starving children scavenging for food.
Bulawayo also forces me to reflect on my opinions of contemporary events, by presenting things I have seen or read about on the news and formed passing opinions of from a very different perspective. Likewise, it encourages me to pay a little more attention to people I see every day, like the Ghanaian and South American cleaning and catering staff that work in my office. The loss of names is a metaphor for the whole loss of identity as one's way of live is destroyed or forced to change. There is only one section in the book where the inhabitants of Paradise have 'real' names, and the destruction of their lives at that time, is, I think reflected in the change in their names.
There are echoes of "The Grapes of Wrath", with Bulawayo using a similar narrative construct, with chapters written from a more distant perspective, giving a view across time and whole groups of people. These are particularly prominent in the second part of the book, after Darling moves to America, with the emigration of people from Zimbabwe echoing the migration West during America's Great Depression.
I enjoyed the first section of the book, when Darling was in Zimbabwe more than the second part after she had reached America. I thought the narrative flowed better in the first part, the second was perhaps a little more disconnected.
Overall though, honestly one of the best books I've read in a while, and I hope it does really well.
[And I must have liked it, because I've just had to write this review twice, the last one didn't save]